DORÉ

Meet Shari Siadat! She is a multi-hyphenate and a mother of three girls so her beauty routine is focused on ease but always leaves room for expression of her Iranian roots and that gorgeous unibrow. Read on to learn more!

What is your morning beauty routine?

I’m an author, activist, dancer, model and creative collaborator, plus a mom of three beautiful daughters, so I rise early, between 4 and 6. I splash my face with warm water and follow it up with Isdin Flavo-c Ultraglican vitamin C serum capsules. They’re glass capsules that you break open gently and they make your skin feel energized. I pair them with Cetaphil Daily SPF 50 before my workout, and when I get home, I take a shower.

I use Oribe Cleansing Creme shampoo and Briogeo conditioner because I’m so often in the ocean and my hair needs that extra care. After a shower, while my skin is still slightly wet, I’ll douse my body with oil. I constantly change up my body oils. I have two favorites on rotation right now. One curated by my dear friend Quincy Davis for her shop in Montauk (Balmyard Beauty Romantic Call Body Oil) and another one that was actually created by another dear friend, Winnie Beattie from the Warm Store. It’s her signature Warm Body Oil.  I also often use Plant People’s Revive or Drunk Elephant’s Virgin Marula Oil. Taking care of skin starts on the inside, so I drink more water than you could imagine as well as Alkamind Berry Greens. Anytime I have coffee, I make sure to put in one scoop of Salted Caramel Acid-Kicking Alkalizer.

What products do you keep in your bag throughout the day?

Movement gives me energy. I love an afternoon of horseback riding or a surfing session at sunrise, so my bag always has Cetaphil SPF and Stridex breakout pads. Every day, I do something different with my look—I might go clean and natural or experiment with color and add glitter to my brow. It depends on my mood and what makes me feel good. It’s hard to keep track of what I use, because I’m always experimenting. I like the idea of seeing your face as a palette and makeup as creating art, as if I’m just a collector of different types of oils and acrylics.

I’m not tied to looking a certain way. Sometimes I throw on a few brushes of mascara and coconut oil on my lips. Other times, I throw sparkles on my unibrow. As a first-generation Iranian-American woman, it’s important for me to connect to my ancestry by celebrating my deeper skin tone and honoring my natural features. I like to decide how I want to look, outside of what society expects for me. Some things that could be in my bag include: Pat McGrath Skin Fetish foundation in light medium 13, Too Faced Born This Way multi-use sculpting concealer in vanilla, Too Faced Damn Girl mascara, Naked 3 or Naked Cherry, Tarte Lip Paint in Delish and this YSL Lip Stain that I’ve used for so long, I can’t even see what color it is. My most revered object is a toothbrush I’ve used to brush my eyebrows since 1999. 

What is your evening skincare routine? 

Water is a healing element for me, whether that means the ocean or my shower rituals. I always wash my face with CeraVe Foaming Facial Cleanser, a drugstore favorite that has worked gently on my eye area for years. I have a deep affection for Love Baja Zen’s Mermaid Glow Salt Soak. I work from my feet up to my heart chakra with Goop’s Dry Brush. And, of course, I love the body oils I mentioned. I have to make sure my body is fully coated in oils before I go to sleep. I love it so much that my daughter Savvy actually bought me Palmer’s cocoa butter to use before bed. My three daughters and I have this ritual where we massage our feet before we sleep, pressing into the heart in that way and just having uninterrupted time where we can take care of ourselves and each other. I’m also a fan of Aesop’s Resurrection Aromatique hand balm on my feet at night (it smells incredible.) Before I sleep, I drink a glass of water with Calm magnesium powder in it to soothe my nervous system.

What is your definition of beauty? 

I feel that the most beautiful thing about someone is the positive energy they emit. It’s a frequency. It’s a force. It’s a gravitational pull. It’s that feeling of wanting to know what they’re on and not wanting to leave that person’s side because they make you feel good. People say beauty is about “what’s on the inside,” but what they really mean is that when you have a kind of inner grace of just being, it’s easy for other people to notice it, feel it and want to create that for themselves.

When do you feel most beautiful? 

I feel most beautiful when I’m mentally and physically strong. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized that’s what beauty is, and there are times when I have it and times when I don’t, and that’s part of it — the ebb and flow of life. Finding that energy again takes work, but it’s worth it. I think aging in quarantine has brought up a lot of complex emotions for me. It’s a reminder that caring for ourselves is a challenge and always will be, especially when our digital world has placed such a high value on who we are through likes, comments and other social metrics. In today’s society, you have to work extra hard to remind yourself of who you are. It takes a lot of work to understand how your behavior could subconsciously be feeding into someone else’s rules and expectations. I think back to photos of when I was thinner and I remember how unhappy I was, despite looking outwardly like a picture of what society wants—“having it all.” No matter how many people say you’re physically beautiful, it means nothing if you don’t feel it. Feeling good is only something you can do. And it’s something I try to do every day.